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Oleg Taktarov
| birth_place = Arzamas-16, Russian SFSR, USSR | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | residence = | nationality = Russian | borns = Almaty,Kazakhstan | height = | weight = | weightclass = | reach = | style = Sambo, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, | stance = | fightingoutof= | team = | rank = 3rd degree black belt in Judo | yearsactive = | mmawins = 16 | mmakowins = 1 | mmasubwins = 9 | mmadecwins = | mmalosses = 5 | mmakolosses = | mmasublosses = | mmadeclosses = | mmadraws = 2 | mmancs = | url = | sherdog = | footnotes = | updated = }} Oleg Nikolaevich Taktarov ( ; born August 26, 1967) is a Russian, retired mixed martial artist and actor. He is a practitioner of Sambo and Judo and has competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and PRIDE Fighting Championship. Taktarov was the UFC 6 tournament champion and holds notable wins over Marco Ruas and David "Tank" Abbott. Taktarov is known for being exceptionally calm during fights and for using a variety of rarely seen, acrobatic Sambo take-downs. Taktarov has never been submitted in a MMA fight. Life and career He was born in present-day Sarov, Russia. Between UFC 5 and UFC 6 (where he won the tournament, beating David "Tank" Abbott in the finals), Taktarov lived and trained with Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den fighting team.Knucklepit.com Taktarov started his American training with Gene LeBell, Jovany Varela and Gokor Chivichyan. UFC career Takatarov entered the UFC 5 tournament, winning his first fight but losing in the semi-finals to eventual champion Dan Severn by stoppage due to a cut. The fight was stopped by the referee because of profuse bleeding above Taktarov's eye due to a cut caused by knees from Severn while Oleg was seeking an armbar from the guard. Taktarov disputes this loss to this day, saying that he could have continued to fight and that he does not consider this cut stoppage to be an actual loss.http://www.knucklepit.com/mixed-martial-arts-oleg_taktarov.htm After losing at UFC 5, Taktarov went to live and train with his friend Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den training camp. Taktarov talked about his experience in an interview: "For a month Ken and I fought together. The guys who later became good fighters, like Frank Shamrock or Guy Mezger, were not any competition for me at the time. The only guy I trained with was Ken, and we had battles behind closed doors. Nobody was allowed to watch them."http://www.knucklepit.com/mixed-martial-arts-oleg_taktarov.htm Taktarov returned at UFC 6 where, in the semifinal bout, Anthony Macias was brought in to replace Patrick Smith due to injury. The fight ended in 12 seconds with Taktarov submitting Macias via front choke becoming the fastest submission in UFC history.http://ufcstats.x10hosting.com/fastsub.php Taktarov went on to defeat a much larger David "Tank" Abbott by rear naked choke after 17 grueling minutes to win the UFC 6 tournament. Taktarov displayed incredible heart and willpower during the fight and had to be taken to the hospital afterwards due to the high altitude of Casper, Wyoming. Well respected by Bob & Ken Shamrock, Taktarov, being the reigning tournament champion, was set up to fight his friend and reigning UFC Champion Ken Shamrock in UFC 7 for the UFC Superfight Championship. Taktarov again displayed an incredible amount of heart in this fight, taking a lot of punishment but refusing to quit. The fight had a 30 minute time limit and went into three minutes of overtime, finishing as a draw at 33 minutes. Taktarov then entered the UFC's Ultimate Ultimate 1995 tournament. Oleg advanced to the finals of the tournament, defeating UFC 5 finalist Dave Beneteau and highly regarded UFC 7 champion Marco Ruas in the process. Taktarov met Dan Severn in the finals in a rematch of their fight at UFC 5. After 30 minutes the judges awarded Dan Severn a decision victory based on points scored during the bout. On November 21, 2003, at UFC 45, the UFC conducted a poll amongst the fans to determine the most popular fighters in the history of the UFC. The fans voted Oleg as one of the top 10 most popular fighters in the history of the UFC. Other fights Taktarov fought in the first ever PRIDE 1 show on Oct 11, 1997 facing Canadian heavyweight and UFC veteran Gary Goodridge. Unfortunately for Oleg, he suffered a frightening knockout loss. After being knocked unconscious, the hulking 'Big Daddy' landed a scary right hook on the prone Taktarov. Oleg had to be carried out on a stretcher. He later fully recovered. In one of his recent interviews he attributed Goodridge's victory to the peak of the anabolic steroid cycle that Goodridge allegedly went through prior to the fight. Taktarov further asserted that Goodridge's following performances (i.e. a string of losses) clearly indicated the downtrend of the steroid cycle. Perhaps the most famous non-UFC fight of his MMA career is when he faced Renzo Gracie in the MARS Reality Fighting event. The anticipated ground battle never took off and he lost by KO by an up kick as he was looking for a leg submission. Oleg faced his rival Marco Ruas once again in Brazil in a super fight at the World Vale Tudo Championships. It was agreed that there would be no judges for this bout, and when time ran out, it was ruled a draw. Oleg faced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert Sean Alvarez in Pentagon Combat an event held in Brazil. Wearing boxing trunks, he displayed boxing skills by knocking out his opponent. In Russia, for a specialized event Oleg faced Dolph Lundgren in a celebrity boxing match. Acting career After temporarily retiring from mixed martial arts, Taktarov focused on his acting career, and starred in the movies 15 Minutes, Bad Boys II, 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out, Air Force One, and the [[Rollerball (2002 film)|2002 version of Rollerball]]. He also appeared in the first episode of season 3 of Alias entitled The Two IMDb and in the NCIS season 5 finale Judgement Day. He has also appeared in a few Russian productions, and was cast in a few releases from 2007, such as We Own the Night. IMDb Taktarov also released several instructional Sambo videos and has made an instructional video with Vladimir Vasiliev entitled Russian Mega Fighting.Russianmartialart.com site More recently, Taktarov fought an exihibition boxing match on Russian Celebrity Boxing against fellow actor and martial artist Dolph Lundgren.Lundgren and Oleg Taktarov Boxing Match Taktarov is currently filming Robert Rodriguez's franchise reboot, Predators, directed by Nimrod Antal and set for 2010. Filmography Return to mixed martial arts Prior to making a successful comeback to the sport in 2007, Taktarov's last bout was in 1998. Taktarov announced in an online radio interview in November 2007 his plans to return to MMA with BodogFIGHT.Episode 9, American Sambo Association - Sambocast Radio He won his debut match against John Marsh at 33 seconds into the 2nd round of the match by submission (kneebar). He then fought UFC 14 and UFC 15 heavyweight champion Mark Kerr, again winning by kneebar. Taktarov is now retired from mixed martial arts, but is training with BJ Penn for his upcoming movie Predators. MMA record {| style="font-size: 85%; text-align: left;" class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" |- !style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|'Result' !style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|'Opponent' !style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|'Method' !style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|'Event' !style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|'Date' !style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|'Time' !style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|'Notes' |- | Win || Mark Kerr||Submission (kneebar) || YAMMA Pit Fighting||2008-04-11 ||1 1:55 |- | Win || John Marsh ||Submission (kneebar) ||BodogFIGHT: USA vs. Russia ||2007-11-30 ||2 0:33 |- | Win || Aaron Salinas ||Submission (armbar) ||Total Kombat ||2001-05-13 ||1 1:24 |- | Win || Moti Horenstein ||Submission (kneebar) ||National Freesparring ||1998-02-21 ||1 3:24 |- | Win || Mick Tierney ||Submission (kneebar) ||National Freesparring ||1998-02-21 ||1 3:58 |- | Loss || Gary Goodridge ||KO ||PRIDE 1 ||1997-10-11 ||1 4:57 |- | Win || Sean Alvarez ||KO (punches) ||Pentagon Combat ||1997-09-27 ||1 0:52 |- | Win || Chuck Kim ||Submission (guillotine choke) ||World Fighting Federation ||1997-02-14 ||1 0:23 |- | Loss || Renzo Gracie ||KO (kick and punch) ||Martial Arts Reality Superfighting ||1996-11-22 ||1 1:02 |- | style="background: #c5d2ea"|Draw || Marco Ruas ||Draw ||World Vale Tudo Championship 2 ||1996-11-10 ||1 31:12 |- | Win || Joe Charles ||Submission (kneebar) ||World Vale Tudo Championship 1 ||1996-08-14 ||1 4:42 |- | Loss || Ryushi Yanagisawa ||Decision (Lost Points) ||Pancrase: Truth 5 ||1996-05-16 ||1 15:00 |- | Loss || Dan Severn ||Decision (Unanimous)||Ultimate Ultimate 1995 ||1995-12-16 ||1 30:00 |- | Win || Marco Ruas ||Decision (Unanimous)||Ultimate Ultimate 1995 ||1995-12-16 ||1 18:00 |- | Win || Dave Beneteau ||Submission (Achilles lock) ||Ultimate Ultimate 1995 ||1995-12-16|| 1 1:15 |- | style="background: #c5d2ea"|Draw || Ken Shamrock ||Draw ||UFC 7: The Brawl in Buffalo ||1995-09-08 ||1 33:00 ||For UFC Superfight title |- | Win || David "Tank" Abbott ||Submission (rear naked choke) ||UFC 6: Clash of the Titans ||1995-07-14 ||1 17:45 ||Won UFC 6 Tournament |- | Win || Anthony Macias ||Submission (guillotine choke) ||UFC 6: Clash of the Titans ||1995-07-14 ||1 0:09 |- | Win || Dave Beneteau ||Submission (Front Choke) ||UFC 6: Clash of the Titans ||1995-07-14 ||1 0:57 |- | Loss || Dan Severn ||TKO (Cut) ||UFC 5: The Return of the Beast ||1995-04-07 ||1 4:21 |- | Win || Ernie Verdicia ||Submission (Choke) ||UFC 5: The Return of the Beast ||1995-04-07 ||1 2:23 |- | Win || Maxim Kuzin ||Submission (Choke) ||White Dragon: Day Three ||1993-10-23 ||1 1:11 |- | Win || Artur Almaev ||TKO (Corner stoppage) ||White Dragon: Day Two ||1993-10-22 ||1 4:25 |- | Win || Vaskas Hilma ||Submission (Choke) ||White Dragon: Day Two ||1993-10-22 ||1 0:24 |- See also *List of male mixed martial artists References External links *Professional MMA record *Official Site * Category:1967 births Category:American people of Russian descent Category:Living people Category:People from Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Category:Russian film actors Category:Russian mixed martial artists Category:Russian sambo practitioners fr:Oleg Taktarov ja:オレッグ・タクタロフ pt:Oleg Taktarov ru:Тактаров, Олег Николаевич